Saturday, June 28, 2008

Naivete, thy name is Arkansas Democrat-Gazette?

Just a few days a go the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette had a pretty good editorial about Dan Coody, and his dark fantasies about running for mayor a third time. With this morning’s editorial -“Willful Blindness ness Dept.: Naivete, thy name is Barack Obama” - they managed to wipe out that memory in record time.

Taking Obama - and by extension the Supreme Court - to task for their old-fashioned view that the rule of law, and granting prisoners the right of Habeas Corpus will somehow result in in all of these prisoners being free to attack the U.S. again, they reveal a serious mistrust in the basic rule of law in the United States, that which other nations often look to as an example of how to conduct themselves.

Guilt? Innocence? These are just words! So what if a lot of these guys were just innocent schmucks turned in by people for the reward, who may not be guilty of anything at all, except being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The new mind-set:

Guilty until proven guilty.

There is a wonderful scene in Robert Bolt’s “A Man for All Seasons,” in which Tomas Moore debates the law with Roper, his prospective son-in-law. I have to paraphrase, because I loaned my copy to someone a long time ago, and they haven’t brought it back yet.

Roper says that he would cut down every law in England to get at the Devil. And what would you do, More asks, when every law is cut down, and the devil comes after you?

Moore makes the point that the laws are not there to protect the devil (the King, evil-doers) but to protect us, common humanity - a point that the scribes at the Democrat-Gazette-may have missed yesterday, in their patriotic zeal.

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Holy Obfuscation, Batman!

The best part of the editorial was the paragraph that read:

What alternative did Senator Obama propose? Take all the captured enemy combatants at Guantanamo, lawful and/or unlawful, including the hard-core ringleaders who have bragged about their atrocities, and turn them over to the criminal courts of the United States, presumably with all the privileges, rights, appeals, delaying tactics and general obuscations appertaining thereto.

Ah, yes.

Delaying tactics.

General obfuscation.

You know, the stuff our government has been doing with regard to the whole process from the very beginning?

General obfuscataion, indeed.

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You look really stupid rsdrake

I keep getting this email - along with one that kindly offers to “update” my penis - which I am just sort of assuming would lead to me Virus Land, should I click on the link.

I guess it goes on the assumption that in the YouTube age, that everyone is vulnerable to having a video on the Internet that makes them look really stupid. But aside from the fact that it’s a generic email grabbing onto my email address, why would I want to go to a site and see myself look really stupid?

I have enough chances to do that on a regular basis, anyway.

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Quote of the Day

I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. - Will Rogers